Crucial to international stability are hegemonic powers to enforce international laws. Our current system is primarily controlled by the United States, backed up by its European allies, while China and Russia act as counter-weights trying to reduce American influence overseas and flex what political muscle they have. The result is a bipolar order similar to that of the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League or NATO and the Warsaw Pact. This outcome is not desirable as it encourages conflict and deadlock.
In Statecraft, conflict is not desirable. There are no points awarded for taking over others; you merely gain their resource production. In doing so, you ensure that someone ends the game with a low score, which breeds animosity. To avoid this, we need a system designed for improved conflict resolution.
I propose the creation of a tripolar system; three significant military powers to keep each other in check and enforce international law. These three powers should comprise of two military dictatorships to create strong armies and a communist totalitarian state to act as the triumvirate's eyes and ears, keeping tabs on each nation's progress to ensure that they're not secretly building up weapons.
While these three powers will be tasked with leading all the other nations, they won't necessarily achieve the highest score, and as leaders they will have to spend more time and effort on diplomacy and planning. Their decisions will, however, have the greatest impact on the game's outcome, and they will quickly see how they behave when they are given a little power.
The ICC will act as a judiciary. Countries indicted by the ICC should not only suffer the loss of 20 political capital, but also face the possibility of resource deduction or military invasion. An uncooperative country is a threat to the international community, as each nation has an important role to play, whether it's in resource production or scientific research. Those who join the system are expected to abide by the law, and will be punished for failing to do so. There is no punishment, however, for refusing to join. Membership is entirely voluntary.
Countries who cooperate don't have to waste turns building weapons and defence systems and can focus on culture or education. They will have signed non-aggression pacts with the triumvirate and all compliant nations, who are then able to station troops in their countries (unless your country borders a non-compliant nation, you don't need defences at all). A mercenary system will work as long as the triumvirate remain strong. In return, the other country must give them natural resources or technology. This will help the triumvirate pay for the high maintenance costs of armies/spies.
The UN's primary role should be to discourage military arms production in non-triumvirate states, act as mediator during conflicts, and ensure that no one researches nuclear fission. Nuclear weapons will result in a global panic followed by an arms race, destabilizing the entire system. No nukes. Any state found to be building nukes must be quickly eliminated.
The alternative to this heavily authoritarian system is a Cold War scenario with two opposing alliances vying for superiority or a feudal system in which the world becomes fragmented into small groups of countries wasting time building military units and defences, mistrustful and unwilling to cooperate. . Nor will students be able to stomach the rise of a sole military power that tries to hard to act as the sole hegemon. All of these alternative systems do not facilitate a high score, and benefit no one. To ensure that these scenarios are avoided, all concerns should be voiced at the first UN meeting to ensure the vast majority of countries are on board with the plan.
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